ST James's stri tit-'-^fe VvtVk^- L I G> RARY OF THE U N 1VER.SITY Of ILLI NOIS v.\ The person charging this material is re- sponsible for Its return to the library trom which it was withdrawn on or betore the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN ? S1976 \ji' L161 — O-1096 ./ V A rH TILBURY N060; OK, PASSAGES m THE LIFE AN UNSUCCESSFUL MAN. BY THE AUTHOR OF " DIGBY GRAND. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL Xuhu : C H A P M A N A N L) H A [. L. 193, PlCCADH-I.Y. 18.54. LO^'DON: FEIKIED BT EOGERSON AND TLilORC, 24G, sTUASD. TILBURY NOGO. CHAPTER I. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him. Henry V. To fling the billows from the drenched hair, And laugh from off the lip the audacious brine ; And then to plunge, with wanton spirit, down Into their green and glassy gulfs. ' It is the prevailing cant of the day, to uphold ^ intensity of purpose and force of will as being 6.^ equal to and commensurate with energy of •^ mind and power of body. Had it but been - so, I, Tilbury Nogo, might truly have achieved ^ ^ B 2 TILBURY NOGO. success ; but, alas ! like the comforter and con- soler of Sempronius, 1 can only congratulate myself on having deserved it. Before entering upon the thrilling relation of some of my ad- ventures in civilized life, and the detail of my many attempts at distinction and success, it may not be amiss, in these genealogical days, when the landed gentry of this favoured country — from the cotton-lord of yesterday, who has just completed the purchase of his hundred thousand acres, to the sturdy yeoman, who himself tills the profitless soil that barely keeps him from starvation — must all and each be handed down to posterity, with their ima- ginary ancestors, on the golden page of his- tory, as emblazoned by the ingenious Mr. Burke — it may not be amiss — in fact, it is absolutely essential — that I should commence by specifying how I, T. Nogo, was the only son and heir of Zachary Nogo, Esq, who, in his espousals with the amiable Miss Muff, was blessed with no other issue than the writer of these pages, whose only apology for thus pre- senting himself to the public is the sincere hope that he may prove as a beacon and a warning to the too-ambitious youth of this aspuing age, who often flatter themselves that TILBURY NOGO. 6 "to deserve success" is as efficacious as ''to command it." I may here remark that my tendency and attachment to field-sports may be attributed to my descent, on my mother's side, from a family who, time out of mind, have been ar- dently addicted to all out-of-door pursuits. I have met more ]\Iuffs out huntiuf? than in anv other assemblage of my fellow-citizens, albeit they are to be found in very sufficient multi- tudes engaged in graver and more important pursuits. My father had a great idea of Eton ; and although his death delayed my appearance at that jovial school till I had completed my twelfth year, no sooner was I fairly launched in my teens than I was packed off, per stage, to take my chance of arriving at my destina- tion — Eton Coll., Bucks — in company with two other '' new fellows," one hat-box, one portmanteau, and one carpet bag, the latter well stuffed with provision for both body and mind, including a Greek grammar, a mighty cake, a " Gradus ad Parnassum," as it is somewhat ambitiously denominated, and a cold plum-pudding. I have not the face to inflict on my readers B 2 4 TILBURY NOGO. the autobiography of an Eton boy; but I mnst " cry their mercy" for the narration of two anecdotes bearing upon that fatahty which has pursued me through Hfe, and which has ever interposed when success was all but in my grasp. Sysiphus was a joke to me; and, I take it, his task was no pleasant one. Whilst enduring the six-o'clock lessons, long morn- ings, faggings, and other agremens of life in the fourth form, I was induced by the per- suasive arguments of a i^or^-scug, rejoicing in the appropriate name of "Tubbs," to relax my mind and forget my sorrows in the enjoy- ment of a bath at Cuckoo- ware, the pleasure being increased by its being a drizzling day in October, and the exploit being much enhanced by the certainty of a flogging if caught — or nailed, as we termed it — in the fact; that month being, very properly, one of those in which bathing is strictly forbidden. Well, away we went, in the highest of spirits, stripped, sneaked in, ducked, and persuaded ourselves it was dehghtful; when, in the height of our splashing, holloaing, and enjoy- ment, we were aware of the tramp of a horse, Lind the dreaded form of one of the under- masters was seen, cantering his hack slowly TILBURY NO GO. along the bank. Tubbs, who could swim like a water-rat, was over to the other side in a second, and, on arriving at the shore called (why, I have never been able to understand) " Italy," effected a most successful shirk ; whilst poor I, unwilling to be flogged, yet loath to be drowned — for my swimming was only calculated for a short boy, in his depth — was forced to emerge, and face the infuriated don. * * * * It was Tubbs who proposed the lark of going to bathe ; but at eleven o'clock school, next day, it was, " Nogo to stay." I am se- cure of the sympathy of every old Etonian. * * * * As years rolled on, and the " scug" of former days rolled out into the well-cravatted stripling in the upper division, so did my ambition — that last infirmity of Nogo's mind — increase proportionately. There was a boy then in the school, a scion of a right noble house, whom I, in common with many others, admired, looked up to, and imitated — treading, though at an humble distance, in the footsteps of our paragon. There was nothing he undertook at which he was not most successful, no book he had not 6 TILBURY NO GO. read, no point under discussion in any society at which he was not ait fait. Handsome, daring, talented, and reckless, how could he but succeed ? Well, this boy — man in intel- lect and energy — amongst other more harm- less pursuits, was deeply versed in the science of judicious betting — or " book-making," as it is called, in contradistinction, I presume, to book-writing, which any one can do ; and it was with open-mouthed admiration that we, his contemporaries, heard of his winning a large stake on the great national race of our summer half. Hundreds on a Derby was rather a "jy^^" for an Eton boy. Fired with a noble emulation, I vainly thought, on a lesser scale, to do likewise. Our Sculling Sweepstakes was coming on ; and, from m.y proficiency in that particular department of boating, I thought 1 might fairly calculate on beating the rest of my school-fellows. Like the great original I copied, I got a betting- book, ruled it most carefully, and proceeded to enter my wagers on the most approved prin- ciple, backing myself heavily with all that would lay against me, but, in my inexperience, omitting to bet against any of the other boys. The consequence was, that I stood to win a TILBURY NOGO. 7 large sum in half-crowns and shillings, should I win the sweepstakes, and to lose largely in the same coin, should any other skiff pass the Brocas Clump a-head of mine. Well, the evening came — how well I remember it ! The placid river ; the level Brocas, with its stately clump standing out against the clear blue sky ; the glorious castle; the flag on the round tower, drooping in the summer air — I see it all now. Then the start ; the strain against the stretcher ; the fever boiling in the veins, till the perspiration, bursting forth, seemed all at once to cool, refresh, and invigorate the quivering frame ; then the turn round Lower Hope, the second wind, the rushes gained, and the coming down-stream, with a rapturous lead; the holloaing, from the bank, of five hundred fellows, all at the utmost pitch of their lungs, and only subsiding into an occasional scream, when so blown from running along- side the leading skiffs as to admit of no greater vent for the enthusiasm inseparable from a boat-race. " Well sculled, Nogo !" "Go it, Nogo!" "WeU sculled. Smith!" " Go along, Brown !" '' Well sculled, Bobin- son !" the latter worthy breaking both his rowlocks, in his animated endeavours to get 8 TILBURY NOGO. forward, and being instantly put hors de corn- hat. "WeU sculled, Nogo 1" "Brown will bump him ! " " Smith's beat ! " " Nogo wins !" " Smith wins !" " Nogo !" " Smith 1" " Hurrah ! hurrah !" and Smith's skiff shoots by the well-known goal, one boat's-length a- head, Nogo second, and the redoubtable Brown a good third. It almost broke my heart, boy as I was. It was so provoking to have nearly won and landed all my bets. It should have been a lesson; but the elasticity of youth soon brought forgetfulness of the past annoyance, and fresh hopes for the future ; and again and again was I forced to admit the truth of the homely proverb that " a miss is as good as a mile." I should have been sent ujp, had it not been for a false quantity in the last of thirty fairly -written long-and-short verses; although I must confess that, prejudiced as T was in their favour, I never could see the merit of the twenty-nine preceding ones. But enough of Eton. " Her praise is hymned by loftier harps than mine ;" though, like most old Etonians, notwithstanding all my reverses, my heart still leaps responsive to the well-known cry, " Floreat Etonse !" TILBURY NOGO. CHAPTER II. Bard. — Out alas, sir ; cozenage, mere cozenage. Host. — Where be my horses ? speak well of them, varletto. Fal. — I would all the world might be cozened, for I have been cozened. It would be superfluous to detail the many good intentions not acted upon, and plans cast aside, which occupied the few years inter- vening between my removal from Eton, and my entrance upon what is called " life." How I read a little, hunted a little, fished, shot, danced, and drove in the same small propor- tion ; how I matriculated (nothing more) at Oxford ; how I thought of going into the army; how I started for the Himalayas, making Paris my first stage, and eventually got no further than that pantomime of a town B 3 10 TILBURY NOGO. — returning a wiser truly, if not a better, man; the old friends who gave me good advice, the young ones who helped me to disregard it ; *' all these I can forgive and those forget." And I must now introduce myself as Mr. Tilbury Nogo, well dressed, well appointed, and well received ; a member of the best clubs ; lodging no matter where, w^ithin easy distance of the same ; and, in short, in the common position of hundreds of other young men about London. I drove a cab, wore lavender- coloured gloves, went everywhere with no particular object, was better supplied with money than brains, by no means good-looking, and decidedly shy. Such was the individual who turned out of TattersalFs yard one frosty day in February, arm-in-arm. with one of that class of acquaint- ances w^hich the world is pleased ironically to term " a friend," and who is more particularly distinguished by that appellation when he keeps you four-and-twenty hours in the vortex of a quarrel, to extricate you at the end of that time by putting you up to be shot at. Silently we passed the gentleman in the red waistcoat, whose unacknowledged greeting was cordial as ever. That cad is a wonderful TILBURY NOGO. 11 official ; he has more acquaintances than any man in England, and winter and summer he never wears a coat. Silently we turned our backs upon the triumphant tomfoolery meant to glorify the greatest warrior of the age ; and it was not till we caught the keen air blowing on us from the half-frozen Serpentine, that my companion, who had been in deep thought, proceeded to give me the benefit of his reflec- tions : — " Upon my word, I don't think this frost will hold. I wonder, Nogo, why you don't go to Melton." There was certainly not much in this lucu- bration ; but such as it was, what a number of ideas these few words brought crowding into ray brain ! Melton, the cream of all winter society : noble earls, jovial M.P.'s, pleasant dandies, good sport, capital dinners, ox-fences, whist, claret, and hard-riding — all jumbled themselves up together in my head, not un- accompanied by certain misgivings that all this might be what is commonly called " too fast " for me ; and it was some httle time before I replied — " Melton, eh ? Well, I beUeve it is a very jolly place at this time of year, and — " 12 TILBURY NOGO. '* Jolly place ! Why, to begin with, it.'s the only place in the world a man can hunt six days a week from, and it's a bore hunting less. I wonder you didn't go there last year. You know most of the fellows ; you've got plenty of money (perhaps he meant lie had had plenty of my money) ; and you might easily get a few horses together ; I'll manage that for you. Why, you've got some to begin upon ; and I'll tell you what, my dear fellow, I wouldn't mind letting you have old Congreve and Barabbas for next to nothing, as I want to get rid of all mine." This was the more kind, as I was well aware of the merits of the animals thus un- hesitatingly proffered in the cause of friend- ship. Congreve was a retu^ed plater, who never having done anything on the turf, was pursuing the same useful career in the hunting- stable ; and what with bad legs, bad temper, and a most inconvenient and eccentric way of disposing of his head, was altogether as dis- agreeable a horse as a man need wish to get rid of. Barabbas, a great white-faced, half- bred brute, whom I did buy, proved himself well worthy of that elegant appellation before I had kept him six weeks. TILBURY NOGO. 13 " Well, you really are very kind," was my reply, " but the fact is, I am not quite sure about the horses I have got ; and though Phiz, Catamaran, and the old mare are all very well in some countries, and can go quite in front when properly ridden, yet I have my mis- givings as to their being good enough for Leicestershire ; and then the fences ; and then I don't quite know^ lohere to live there ; and, in short, it's not an easy thing to manage, and so 1 nuist think it over, &c., &c., &c." Well, the long and short of it was, that after a tete-a-tete dinner at Crockford's, one bottle of dry and three of '25 between the two, I succumbed, made up my mind to go, and that forthwith, and handed over a cheque to my friend for the aforesaid Barabbas, who, I regret to say, became my property from that evening ; as for Congreve, though denominated by his owner as an outside good horse, and the best he had ever possessed, reason sufficiently re- tained her sway, till we parted, to prevent my having anything to do with him. Next morning the misgivings came stronger than ever ; but the die was cast ; and when I found the frost was breaking, the wind getting well round to the south-west, my hack looking 14 TILBURY NOGO. SO sleek and handsome, and London so muddy and disagreeable, I regretted my determination less and less, and even came to think of Barabbas and the cheque of three figures with complacency. I wrote for my horses from the country, ordered some more saddlery, and some top-boots from that prince of the sons of St. Crispin, who ascertaining that his customer did not intend to hunt at the great emporium of the craft, promised to make him a neat " provincial " pair of boots, and made all my arrangements to "take the field," as the old ladies call it, the following week. I do not know how people feel before a campaign, or on the eve of a revolution — though the latter is now hardly " a sensation " — but that last w^eek in London was a most feverish one — " fiery expectation's dower " — and the last day I spent in it I quite came to the conclusion that, after all, there is nothing like a town-life. But it was too late to retract : the stables were engaged, likew^ise a swell stud-groom, the cavahy had already marched via St. Albans, and nothing remained to be done but to take a first-class voucher at Euston-square, buy a Bradshaw, and start. The journey per rail to Syston was per- TILBURY ^'0G0. 15 formed, as all such joui'neys are, without hhidrance or excitement of any kind ; my fellow-travellers were nothing remarkable, and with the exception of my mistaking one popular M.P. for a friend's stud-groom, and another pleasant-looking, agreeable, sporting gentleman for a dissenting clergyman, the latter suppo- sition being confirmed by the theological knowledge displayed in several expressions with which he garnished his conversation — neither misconception, I am happy to say, leading to my addressing the individual before I had discovered my error — nothing occurred to break the monotony of the London and North- Western line. Sir Francis Head's clever pamphlet, " Stokers and Pokers," had not then come out ; and the mind w^as not strained in the endeavour to grasp the magni- tude of an undertaking, in wdiich, independent of the expenditure of coke, coal, and capital, the one small item of lunch alone consumes porkers by the thousand, and Banbury cakes by the milKon — a statistical fact now univer- sally known, thanks to the research of the clever author of that amusing and instructive little w^ork. Syston reached, and a post-chaise with horses in it for Melton duly proclaimed. 16 TILBURY NOGO. self, packages, and valet loaded therein and thereon ; No. I stowed away in the corner, and abandoned to those reflections, which in ray case, inside a carriage, generally resolve themselves into a sound sleep ; whilst the post horses are bobbing and dodging themselves and their short tails through Rearsby, Brooksby, Ku'by, and all the byes on the Leicester and Melton road, I may relate a circumstance which is often brought to my mind by the universal affinity there seems to exist between rapid travelling and sound sleep. A friend of mine, by no means of a wakeful disposition, was summoned to Birmingham — a place he had never before visited, on the most urgent business, one of those cases where delay even of a few hours might be irreparable, and was sure to be attended with the greatest inconvenience. The early train was his only chance ; and breaking through all his luxurious habits of late rising, comfortable breakfast, and doze over a cigar until well into the after- noon, behold him up, dressed, and shaved, seated — actually seated, in the worst of hu- mours, in a most comfortable first-class carriage by half-past five a.m. Like all men of late TILBURY NOGO. 17 habits, when he did break them he did it effectually ; and what with a sleepless night in anticipation of an early start, and the unusual exertion of rising by candlelight, he was as tired when fairly established in the well- cushioned arm-chair of the cou])e as he ought to have been on his arrival at his destination. Balmy sleep soon shed her influence over the most faithful of her votaries, and deep were the notes in which the sluggard chanted his own lullaby ; the sleep of ages, we may sup- pose, would be but as that of one night — nay, of one hour, or even a few minutes, so mys- terious is the agency which "tu'ed Nature's kind restorer " exerts over us ; nor is it in the power of mortal to explain, far less control, that influence which bows the eye, relaxes the muscles, and reduces the whole thinking and intellectual man to the level of that which has no life, " sans eyes, sans ears, sans everything" — what is it but a temporary death ? But to return to my vigilant friend: small surprise did he betoken at having slept through his journey, when the ringing of bells, the shutting off of steam, and all the bustle of a station brought him back to consciousness. More in accordance with his usual habits would it have IS TILBURY NOGO. been to have remained snoring in that corner till forcibly torn away by guard, stoker, con- ductor, and porters ; but he had a great duty to fulfil, and with the recklessness of a despe- rate man he fixed his knuckles into his twink- ling eyes — those eyes which, on ordinary mornings, the corner of a boot-jack would hardly seem to have power to unclose — and with one mighty shake, and a triumphant ex- clamation, he grasped his carpet-bag and writing-case, pushed aside the porter who was vainly endeavouring to shut him in, threw back a farewell glance at the train now moving slowly northward, and striding across the plat- form to a stout man in green, and thrusting his ticket into the hands of the astonished functionary, he emerged into the morning air considerably nearer London than Birmingham ; as ere his first impression clothed itself in the half-formed words, " Bless me, how alike all these stations are ! " a second glance revealed the very cab that had brought, and the very driver who had overcharged him, whilst around and above him frowned the classic architecture of Euston-square on his astonished gaze. He had jumped out just as the train started, and although his non-appearance at Birmingham TILBURY NOGO. was productive of all the anticipated incon- venience, I have heard that when he got back to his own house he went to bed again, and quietly finished his night's, or rather his morn- ing's rest. Certainly my sleep was not so sound as his, nor was the waking quite so unsatisfactory, as a well-hghted, most comfortable room at the George, with a blazing fire, and that sort of picturesque arrangement of clean table-cloth, glass, and silver, which foretells a well-served dinner, was by no means a bad exchange for the damp cushions and ricketty motion of a post-chaise, letting in the draughts of a Feb- ruary afternoon, and cooling the interior till the shivering occupant wonders why a close carriage is supposed to be the warmest, and whether it can be possible that such weather as he feels at his extremities can have anything to do \nth what we call a thaw. Everything looked very like hunting cer- tainly ; I met the smartest of valets carrying the dirtiest of boots and breeches on the stair- case. The waiter informed me of a run they had had that day, but cjuite in the business- like, unimportant manner that seemed to say 20 TILBURY NO&O. such things were of every day occurrence. There were foxes' brushes at the bell-pulls, and the meets, of heaven knows how many, packs of hounds over the chimney-piece. I quite wondered why a man couldn't hunt eighteen times a week. I am somewhat shy, and as a relief from the agreeable society of the waiter I sent for my groom, hoping to ascertain something about things in general from him, and make my arrangements for the morrow. In he came ; such a coat, and such slender supporters ! he looked as if he had put his arms through his trowsers and his legs in his sleeves. I saw his hat next day, and was siu-prised no more after that — " Well, Stubbs, how did you get down ? and how are the horses ?" " Horses all well, sir, and most of them fit to go ; 'ceptin two as I had out to-day on the Widmerpool side ; and the mare's got a cough, and the hack's been and hit himself, and Phiz is rather big, I should like to give him a turn afore you ride him, and — " " Stop," said T, not quite liking the way in which he was running through my stud, and wondering what there would be for me to ride ; TILBURT NOGO. 21 " stop, I must have sometbiug for to-morrow ; I see the Belvoir are within reach, and 1 should like to look at them." " Beg your pardon, sir, but to-morrow's the Quorn day, in High Leicestershire, so I kept Barabbas and the young one for you to ride to-morrow ; ten miles from here, sir, and a very good place. I had the grey out the beginning of the week, and he frames remark- ably well, never seems to refuse, pulls un- common hard; but I'll put a bridle on, sir, that'll soon stop that ; and Barabbas will go very well for second horse, and — •" I was forced to interrupt my voluble master of the horse, to beg he would indulge in no vagaries about bridles, as the little experience I have had has convinced me that servants and their masters are apt to differ considerably in their mode of treatment of that most sensitive of all things, a horse's mouth. " Stop, let me have the hack at the door in time, if he is sound, and — " " Dinner, sir," said the waiter ; which fur- nished me with a good excuse for getting rid of my attendant, and I stalked into my dress- ing-room to wash my hands whilst my soup was cooling, with the comfortable reflection 22 TILBURY NOGO. that amongst all the horses in my stable, the two I would most particularly rather 7iot have ridden for my dthui at such a place as Barkby, were a young one, of whom I knew nothing, except that he pulled hard, and was rising six ; and Barabbas, of whom what I did knoAv was by no means enough to give me confidence in a large crowd endeavouring to spoil a quick thing over a stiff country. TILBURY NOGO. 23 CHAPTER III A fox-hunt to a foreigner is strange, And likewise subject to the double danger Of tumbling first, and having in exchange Some pleasant jesting at the awkward stranger. Mazeppa answered, ** 111 betide The school wherein 1 learned to ride." The next morning saw me trotting merrily along, after a due study of the map and obser- vation of the sign-posts, on high thoughts intent. I was screwed " np" to the sticking- place, and meant mischief. The morning was as if ordered expressly : there had been a slight frost, but the day was clouding over ; and the wind, though scarcely perceptible, had that keenness which so often accompanies fine scenting weather. I had started early, to avoid the companionship of men with whom I had not yet the honour of being acquainted, and many of whom I did not know even by 24 TILBURY NOGO. sight, thoiigh their names were famihar to my ear and honoured in my heart. Nirarod's book, " The Hard Riders of England," had taught me, as a boy, to look upon " a good man over a country" with a most reverential feeling ; and I had really never quite got over this sort of hero-worship. It w^ould be the height of injustice to deny that many of those whose names my boyhood honoured solely for their well-known success as sportsmen, have been equally distinguished in the more im- portant pursuits of life. Witness the court, the camp, and the bar ; the desert and the ocean, the plains of the Punjaub and the walls of St. Stephen's. I was a little nervous, certainly, and none the less so for having to ride Grey-friar ; but I was determined to go, and a little more or less of peril made trifling odds. It was a service of danger altogether; but then the Kvdog, if obtained in that country ! In short, " Do or die " was the motto — very much the feeUng with which a Frenchman goes out hunting. His national vanity makes him think the eyes of all England are upon him, his inborn gallantry impels him to be forward, and his acquired sang f void prevents him from TILBURY NO GO. 25 disclosing liis misgivings. He generally rides unmercifully hard, till in the natural course of events he is stopped by a rattling fall, and is invaria])ly flattered with the somewhat doubtful compliment of having gone so extremely well for a Frenchman ; but for all this, I do not think he thoroughly enjoys it. I found my w^ay easily ; and cantering pleasantly over sundrj' most extensive grass-fields, agreed with the noble lord who used to declare riding to covert in Leicestershire beat hunting any- where else. An early breakfast, not so hearty as it might have been, a free-going hack, and a fine morning are wonderful things for the spirits ; and I was delighted wdth the cheerful " Good mornings" of a farmer or tw^o whom I overtook, and the universal touch of the hat from every countryman I met. A friend of mine used to say, " They always call you My Lord before Christmas ; afterw^ards, lords are so plentiful here that it is no compliment :" and certainly a scarlet coat is duly appreciated in Leicestershire. " Well, I rode on, and on I rode," as the old Border ballad has it ; and after over- taking sundry horses that looked like the im- personation of speed, strength, and gallantry 26 TILBURY NOGO. (I am at a loss for a classic simile : the Greeks^ hadjaot an idea of what a horse should be ; look at the heavy- shouldered brutes in the Elgin marbles : no wonder they drove them), J came at last to an open gate, and turning short found myself in company with two or three men in red coats, looking at the neatest pack of hounds in England. " And so they ought to be!" I hear the reader exclaim; well, and so they are : level, powerful, and graceful. What can look more like going than eighteen couple of bitches out of the Quorn Kennels ? But hounds are universally voted a bore; so I must close my raptures with the remark that the hounds looked as if they should go the pace, the horses as if they could, and the men as if they would. After Nimrod's description of a run over Leicestershire, which, written by the best sporting author of the day, was, I believe, touched up by the cleverest reviewer, and illustrated by the most talented artist, it is in vain for an humble pen to attempt to follow in his steps, " non patsibiis (Bqiiis,'' as he him- self w^ould have told us, for verily he w^as up in Virgil. Vain, then, would it be for me to attempt to describe, as he did, the " lawless TILBURY NOGO. 27 burst/' the wicked riding, the " Siberian waste of grass/' the cracking rails, the sub- mersion of new coats and gallant souls in the Whissendine, which, it would appear, ought to be regularly dragged during the hunting months ; the little bay horse whose untimely stop comes home to the feelings of all " de te fabula narratur r and lastly, the scream, which frighted the village and hall of Cottes- more from its propriety, and must have called forth a responsive yowling from the denizens of its well-known kennel. Neither can I fall back upon a true and particular account of what happened to me individually, in the first person; for I am again '' headed'' by the same author, who describes a most courageous cha- racter fighting a young horse through the best part of the best run " that had been seen for three seasons," as the writer himself expresses it in his veracious and autobiographical letter to his friend. My exploits and eventual failures would indeed pale before this worthy's account of " how he rode over young M. (I wonder who he was), how he lost his whip and part of his rear-guard in a bullfinch," how he cleared nine yards with the young one, but lighting in a furrow and on a mole-hill nar- c 2 28 TILBURY NOGO. rowly escaped the fate of the ilkistrious Anti- Jacobite, who fell a victim to the architecture of the little gentleman in black velvet ; how he was up and at it again ; and after many- more deeds of daring and sundry mishaps, is eventually reduced to a stand -still, the young one being completely beat and minus an eye — an accident not confined to Leicestershire, if we may judge by the number of times the same casualty appears to occur in the neigh- bourhood of Hoiborn and other parts of London, " There you go with your eye out" being so common a salutation that it seldom or ever induces the person so kindly warned to turn round and look for the missing lumi- nary. I can only say we had a run, a right good one I was carried well, and thanks to follow- ing those who were of sterner mould than myself, in a most satisfactory place during a greater portion of the time. A fall, with the loss of a stirrup-leather, and a bad turn, chiefly owing to the forbidding ap- pearance of a certain hog-backed style, extin- guished my chance for the remainder; but I came up in time to see a most gallant and straightforward fox })roperly accounted for and TILBURY NO GO. 29 eaten, and went back to Melton wonderfully well satisfied with myself and Grey-friar. Pretty well for a Nogo this ! I thought. Besides which, I had met one or two acquaint- ances, made another by catching his horse, and been cordially and cheerfully invited to dimier by an utter stranger to me, but one of whose hospitality and amiable qualities I had often heard; so that altogether I was what people call well pleased with my day's work, and went to ray dressing-room with far differ- ent feehngs from those which I had experienced in the same locality twenty-four hours before. I was no longer shy of the waiters ; I sent for my groom, and gave him his orders instead of accepting them from him, somewhat to his astonishment. I felt free of the place ; I had actually survived a run in Leicestershire ; the fences were not so fearful as I had supposed. People were civil to me; I was going to a pleasant dinner ; and, in short, everything was '* coultur de rose!' 30 TII.BCRr NOGO. CHAPTER IV. " There was a g'oodly soupe a la bonne femme, Thougli whence it came from, heaven only knew. With turbot, for relief of those who cram, Relieved by dindon a la parigueux. There likewise was (the sinner that I am ! How shall I get this gourmand stanza throngli ?) Soupe a la beauveau, whose relief was dory, Relieved itself by pork, for greater glory, &c." '' Languidus in cubitum jam se con viva reponit/' HOIIAT. I HAVE always admired the sentiments of the late Dr. Kitchener — none the less, perhaps, for the inimitable review of certain of his writings in the " Recreations of Christopher North ;" but though I must needs laugh with honest Kit, I cannot laugh at good Dr. Kit- chener, whose ideas about diilners were of the TILBURY NOGO. 31 most profound and orthodox description. *' Seven o'clock is the best part of the day" — how often do we hear this remarked ! and in this favoured country, where the majority of us can still get plenty to eat (long may it be so !), it is notorious that nothing can be under- taken or completed without dinner. " Dine, and pass resolutions," as Charles Matthews says. Nobody would dream of passing the resolutions without dining ; in fact, there would be no resolutions to pass. The alder- man going to a city-feast did not pity the mendicant who had tasted no food for four- and-twenty hours : far from it, the heroic feeling of the civic dignitary was that of envy, not commiseration. " Lucky fellow, what an appetite you must have !" was his remark. He could not reahze the idea of a man having no dinner to go to ; and this feeling, if ana- lyzed, will be found to exist in all classes of the community. What is so popular as eating and drinking, on the stage ? Success at the bar can only be obtained by the punctual mas- tication of " commons." In the army, from the days of Shakspeare dov/nwards, when he says of Henry the Fifth's troops, 32 TILBUEY NOGO, Then give them great meals of beef, and steel, and iron ; and they will eat like wolves, and fight like devils, a good commissariat has ever been esteemed the very foundation of success ; and Lord Byron — the poet, of all others, who describes Hfe as it is, and not as it ought to be — calls " the tocsin of the soul," the dinner-bell. I may, therefore, be excused for confessing that I was by no means sorry to find myself, about half-past seven p.m., comfortably settled in a well-proportioned room, eating a capital dinner, drinking excellent wine, waited on by the quietest and most attentive of servants ; and though last, not least, enjoying the society of five most agreeable convives, the whole efiect being heightened by the four red coats and two black, which gave the proper Avarmth and variety of coloming, and destroyed the usual sombre appearance of an exclusively male party. Nimrod says, at Melton people never talk about hunting after dinner; and, on this occa- sion, if the exception prove the rule, he was right. Certainly, the subject was duly can- vassed; and the fact of one of the party having TILBURY XOGO. o3 been laid up with a sprained ankle, and con* sequently unable to hunt, though not debarred from the pleasures of society, gives me an op- portunity of describing our run, as it was related to him by one well qualified to give an account of everything that was done, of course inter- spersed with many interruptions and good things said, which must be heard to be appreciated. Dinner was over, and the first bottle of claret beginning its genial rounds, when the conversation, which had m succession touched upon wine, politics, music, racing, painting, and the topics of the day, v,^as more especially brought round to the subject of hunting by the lame gentleman, thus throwing himself on the mercy of the company : "Well, now, somebody tell me about the run to-day ; for, except your having found at Barkby, and run for fifty -two minutes, I can get no further intelligence : and this was only from my servant, vrho told me the day before yesterday there was what he -caUs ' a splendid hunt' — that they found at Owston Wood, and killed at Launde, w^hich, as I know the dis- tance to be three-quarters of a mile, has rather shaken my confidence in his reports of sport." " Well, ni tell you," said 0— filling him* c 5 34 TILBURY NOGO. self a bumper of '34, a vintage of which he had abeady expressed his decided approval. " We drew all the morning without finding ; and had it not been for Barkby Holt to fall back upon, we should have regretted losing so promising-looking a day. However, the Holt is a pretty sure find ; and I must say, I, for one, never gave way to despondency about it. They found immediately a brace of foxes. I was standing in the middle ride, and viewed a fellow across, with a tag to his brush Hke the white flag of a rear-admiral ; and, thinks I, he looks like going — I hope they will settle to him, Sm^e enough, though there was a holloa at the upper end, this was the fox they were running; and I had hardly listened for ten seconds when I heard them turning towards me, and presently they crossed close to my horse's feet. Another holloa at the bottom, and down the ride came Ben, blowing for his life ; and though his horse put both his feet in a hole, and went end-over-end with him, he never took the horn from his mouth, but kept striving to toot, though his trumpet was stufi'ed up with dirt. He was with them again di- rectly ; and by the time I could get to the end of the wood, the hounds were streaming away TILBURY NOGO. 60 over the next field, pointing for Ashby Folville, and with all the appearance of a capital scent. I saw W — , of course, get a start, and 1 rode two fields to him; and I believe, Mr. Nogo, was of some service to you in saving you a fall/' I bowed my thanks, as the fact is, the young one was so eager that I was forced to let him have his own way; and when my obhging friend holloaed to me, I was going straight for the corner of the field, at a good-sized fence, on the other side of which I afterwards ascer- tained there was a large, deep pond. " What a fellow W— is to get a start !" said oiu- host : ''he never loses a chance ; and what a pace he gets his horses along — he knows so well how to make them gallop !" I may here be allowed to tell an anecdote of the noble lord alluded to, which, I think, illus- trates not only quickness and decision, but a degree of judgment as to pace which must be invaluable in a race. Hounds were running really fast over the finest part of Leicestershire, and were nearly a field a-head of any one. Lord W — , with several others, jumped into a large grass field, at the further end of which, and between them and the hounds, was a strong, black-looking fence, that, on a nearer 36 TILBURY NCGO. approach, was found to be impracticable. There was but one place in it, and that w^as made up of four stiff rails, with a soft green spot to land in, that looked very like a certain fall ; and add to this, a large herd of frightened bul- locks rushing down towards it. His mind was made up as quickly as his eye glanced to- wards the place. He had ridden too many races not to know exactly when to '' come ;" and, conscious he was on a fast one, he " sat down, and set to." It was a capital race. The leading bullock ran remarkably stout ; but the noble lord beat him by a length : and al- though he came heels-over-head in the bos: on the further side, that was nothing, and another minute saw him gracefully sailing over the opposite rise, well compensated for a dii'ty coat by the knowledge that some twenty of his most intimate friends were at that moment fussing, fuming, and swearing behind him, hemmed in by the herd of oxen that effectively stopped up their only egress, and with the comfortable knowledge that, if hounds only went on running as they appeared to be in- clined to do, and as they afterwards really did, they would be "nowhere," and not one of them would ever again catch more than a TILBURY NOGO. 37 glimpse of Lord W — 's horse's well-squared tail, till all the fun was over — which eventually turned out to be the case. But to return to the run : " Nogo, the wine is with you.'' Having restored the circulation of the fluids, uncon- sciously impeded by my inattention, — pro- ceeded. '' He had no intention of paying Ashby Tolville a visit, but, leaving it on his right, made as straight as a line for Ashby Pastm^e ; and they really went such a trimming pace over the grass, that I began to think twenty minutes would finish the whole thing. However, when we arrived at the wood, it w^as evident he had no objection to its shelter from being too warm ; for into it he went, and out again at the further end, like a shot. I gal- loped dovm. the outside, keeping the wood on my right, as hard as I could lick, and arrived at the corner just as the hounds came out. Away they flashed, straight across the oppo- site enclosure, and then up went all their heads at once — much, I confess, to my rehef ; for, had I not been able to get a pull then, I was beginning to wonder how much longer my horse could live at the pace of an express train. The Baronet, who had gone through 38 TILBURY NOGO. with the hounds, had hold of them in a second, and, casting them short to the left, and down wind, showed that he knew pretty well the na- ture of the animal, and whereabouts Cream Lodge was. Sure enough, that was his point, for they hit it off immediately ; and, notwith- standing one field quite full of sheep, who, in their usual warlike manner, had formed squa- drons, and charged right across his line, and another of oxen, they hunted it merrily on, at a good holding pace, nearly up to the gorse. Here, I fancy, he must have been headed from his line ; for, with no apparent reason that we could make cut, they turned again to the right, leaving the gorse tw^o fields upon the left. I saw rather a good thing happen just at this point. A young man on a neatish- looking, well-bred horse, w^ho had been going uncommonly well, but I suppose had pumped him out in doing so, jumped manfully into a double post-and-rail fence, with the laudable intention of doing it at twice. The ditch, however, between the rails, though dry, was deep, and the further timber looked high and strong ; and when " in,'' like her Majesty's Ministers, the thing was, how to get him " out!' Off he got, and, sitting on the oppo- TILBURY XOGO. 39 site rail, proceeded to pull manfully at his head. The fish was safely hooked, and the line at its utmost stretch, when crack went the rail on which mv friend was leaninsr for a purchase : at the same moment his horse, who had been making up his mind for a final effort, jumped gallantly at his fahing owner, and, knocking him completely over, with one fore- leg through his hat, he dragged him prostrate into the field, only to leave him there with the reins safe in his grasp, but, thanks to a trea- cherous head-stall, nothing else remaining to him of his " monture!' Whether he is still in that field, trying to catch the runaway, and singing, * The last links are broken that bound rae to thee/ I have not since had time to ascertain. The pace improved considerably before we got to the Melton and Leicester road, but not enough to prevent two northern gentlemen, both heavy weights, from jumping a high, strong gate into it ; and from our fox having turned down the road we had here another trifling check. By-the-bye, I saw a good many fellows look- ing out for their second horses just about this time ; but unless they had been ordered to 40 TILBURY NOGO. patrol between Melton and Brooksby, I do not see that there was much reason to expect them. When the hounds hit it off again, and really got their heads down in the grass meadows near the river, away they went faster than ever, straight across the middle of the fields, dashing through those thick fences as if they were paper instead of blackthorn ; there was no chance of a pull or even a turn, and the natural consequence was the falls began to get plentiful ; I, for one, got a most imperial crowner in what I believe to have been a second ditch ; but the fact is, old Golightly was blown, and I had been expecting it for one or two fields. However, they did us a good turn in crossing the river not very far from the bridge, so there was no swimming, or jealousy as to who should be " in first ;" and again turning towards us on the further side enabled us to be on pretty comfortable terms with them. (Once more bell rings, " More claret.") Well, they never checked again ; T don't think T ever remember so gallant a fox. I viewed him travelling across the grass-fields below Hoby, as if he never meant to give in ; but he began to run short when we got near Kakedale, and after coursing him up one TILBURY NOGO. 41 hedge-row and down another, they faMy ran into him in the open, just one field from Thrussington Wolds; time exactly fifty-six minutes; and the distance with ' the com- passes, mind, on the Ordnance map ' eight miles, from point to point. I think we ought to drink the Baronet's health and his hounds." This was done justice to, as may be sup- posed, in a bumper ; and the conversation turned upon what L. called the humours of the day. " Vrho was that in the brook just after we left Barkby? I never saw such fun. His horse tried to refuse it, and the man forced him ; and after sliding six yards at least, in he went overhead " " Why that was me," said A. ; ''he is a capital brook-jumper, but a farmer crossed me, and put me out of my stride as I was coming down to it ; and being young, and a thorough- bred one to boot, he won't bear contradiction, and I was too happy to compound by doing it at two stages." " Well, you lost no time," said C, "for I saw you at Ashby, and never remarked you were wet." 42 TILBURY NOGO. " How well G. went to-day ; what a rat- tling good horse that is ! '* " Well, did you ever know him go other- wise ? He is the finest rider I ever saw ; and no one would suppose he was going out of a canter till they came to gallop alongside of him." " How well your horse jumped that gate into the Leicester-road, C. ! " said L. ; "I would not have ridden at it for fifty pounds." *' Oh, yes, you would, my dear fellow : it was not much of a gate ; the taking off was so sound. But he really is a very good horse; I have now hunted him ten seasons, and he has certainly not given me ten falls." " Not much of a gate ?" thought I ; " well, I saw it, and it appeared to me at least a foot too high : certainly, these fellows do ride." " I hope you like Leicestershire, Mr. Nogo," said my neighbour. " That seemed a nice sort of horse you were riding, and appeared to carry you well." " Like it !" I repHed, '' I am delighted with it. I never before knew^ what it was to see a run almost entirely over grass ; and although to-day I certainly did not see more than half TILBURY NOGO. 43 the run to my satisfaction, I am so pleased that I do not think I shall ever hunt anywhere else." " Well said, Mr. Nogo," said our host. " Will anybody have any more claret, or shall we go up -stairs ? There's whist for those who like it, and weeds if fellows want to smoke.'' Not being much of a whist -player, and having done justice to my hospitable landlord's claret, I preferred the latter, and accompanied him to a most luxurious divan : where, ere I had faMy lighted my Havanna and mixed a small modicum of brandy and soda in an enor- mous tumbler, we were joined by several men whom I had that morning met in the hunting- field, and who had dropped in to smoke one cigar and have a chat before going to bed ; amongst others, the gentleman whose horse I had caught in the morning, and who was profuse in his acknowledgm.ents for so trifling a favour. What an evening wx had ! Songs, good stories, laughter, and that cordial good- humour which so generally influences an as- semblage of sportsmen, of whatever rank, the highest as well as the lowest, served to keep the fun alive ; two or three sang remarkably well, and everything which admitted of a 44 TILBURY NOGO. chorus was most harmoniously appreciated. One song, which actually, I believe, charmed away the whist-players from their game by the manner in which it was sung, in one of the richest and sweetest voices I ever heard an unprofessional gifted with, rang in my ears for months afterwards ; it was to the air of " Some love to roam o'er the dark sea foam," and was, in fact, a mere parody on that song, but being devoted to the sport we were all assembled to enjoy, would have been popular, even if sung by a very moderate performer ; and delivered as it was, in the sw^eetest of tones, and with a taste and expression that is seldom met with, no wonder it charmed us all ; and I, who had never heard it before, or met with it elsewhere, was naturally more delighted than any one. This must be my excuse for giving, as nearly as I can recollect, the words of the " chanson ;" should they ever meet the author's eye, he will, I am sure, " excuse errors,'' when he recollects I was listening " arrectis auribus,'' under the com- bined influence of claret, smoke, and the brandy and soda-water before mentioned, and this confession, I trust, will " bear me harmless." TILBURY NOGO. 45 Some love to ride o'er the flowing tide, And dash through the pathless sea ; But the steed's brave bound, and the opening hound, And the rattling hurst for me. Some track the deer o'er the mountain clear ; But though wary the stalker's eye. Be it mine to speed o'er the grassy mead, And ride to a scent breast-high. Breast-high,